Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Okay. I'm old. I don't
understand a lot of gadget stuff. MP3, MP4, widgets...I have no idea what they
are and I doubt that the quality of my retirement will be affected by that
loss. But I do have a computer at home that the cable guy set up. I can send e-mail,
read the news online and have even bought books on Amazon and had them
delivered by UPS to my door.

It's been a whole new world opened up for me. I'm
content with life. Then things got ratched up a level. Santa brought me a
Kindle Fire. Looks nice. But I can't do much else than turn it on and off. A
wi-fi connection is needed. I mull this over for a few days. How do I get one?
Do I call the cable company and pay extra monthly to have them beam a signal
toward my house? I don't have a clue. Enter Google. So I learn that I just need
a box. It's called a "router" and it plugs into my computer. I
consider a trip to Best Buy, but really...my first and last trip there was a
torment. Almost seizure inducing. So I do another Amazon search and find it
even auto suggested a router for Kindle Fire. I browse the various prices but
stick with customer reviews. It's a blind faith thing. And so I opt for this
Medialink. 150 Mbps. Then I get another
e-mail, this time from Mediabridge Products and it gives me directions to their
website and a customer support phone number. Never got that from a seller
before. And then it arrives.

This old man read the step by step instructions
and literally had it set up and running in about ten minutes...well yes, it was
quite stressful but only because I had no understanding of what I was doing but
I followed the steps and it worked. I have wi-fi and the strength of the signal
is good. And the little box? It's. Small and discreet but looks good with little
flashing blue lights. I have it on display. It does everything it's supposed to
do and it's been problem free. And guess what...I'm writing this review on my
Kindle. Thank you Medialink and thank you Santa but please, next year, don't be
testing me this much again.